5 Essential Tips for Successfully Building Your First Camper Van

We’ve completed 2 of our own DIY van builds and have helped countless others via Virtual and In Person consulting. If you are about to begin your first van build, these tips are for you!

Tip #1: Execute a Thorough Water Test First

Once your chassis of choice is in your hands. Hose that bad boy (or girl!) down from all angles and address all leaks before you begin building your camper van. This is crucial whether you bought a used, or new, vehicle. Cargo vans do not actually come with the promise of being water tight. Even though we purchased a new chassis, there were a couple of places that water found its way in through.

These places can hopefully be sealed with some simple sealant; but, it’s better to do it before you have your home built inside and things get wet (or worse, moldy).

Tip #2: Think Through your Entire Van Build Before You Begin

The secret is out: one of the most amateur mistakes we made during our first van build was stopping the planning at our hand drawn layout stage. There were several roadblocks that happened down the road that could have been avoided if we had only thought a little further ahead, these things included:

Where will wires need to be run?
How we will mount certain modules?
How we will build our camper van walls? Fun fact: installing walls is about 10x easier BEFORE any modules enter your van.
What roof layout is possible with our desired components?
etc

BONUS! We have created an eBook dedicated to making sure that you plan your camper van conversion through the finish line correctly.

Tip #3: Be Prepared to Do Things More Than Once

Countless times during our first, and second van build (!!) we did things just to undo them and do them again. Whether it was the plywood cutout that didn’t factor in the wall curve, or the bed structure we made just a 1/2 inch too long, we found ourselves doing things more than once quite often. This is bound to happen. You are building a house.

When this does happen, we find it helpful to take a massive breath, or even step away for a long walk in some fresh air. To limit redos, we recommend:

Test fits and test pieces wherever possible
Mockups (How to Use SketchUp to Design Your Van)
Reading entire user manuals before beginning
Measure 4x, cut once

Tip #4: Doing the Right Thing is More Important Than the Fast Thing

As you surf social media more during your van build, you are going to become frustrated that you aren’t on the road living the van life dream. However, cutting corners is absolutely not an option! Your camper van is going to go through an earthquake a day when you begin traveling so anywhere you skimp, will become extremely evident. And, trust us, fixing an issue on the road will take a lot more time than just dedicating some extra time to doing it correctly upfront.

Do the right thing. Always. You’ll thank us later 😉

Tip #5: Spend Evenings Thinking Ahead

One of the most valuable things we did to speed up our second van build was to recap and plan ahead every evening. It is incredibly easy to get wrapped up in the current task when building a van. However, the truth is that your entire camper van conversion is a ton of moving parts that work together to create the end result. You have to be thinking ahead in terms of design and installing order.

Additionally, you can save yourself time by ordering things at the proper time so that you don’t have to wait around. BONUS: check out our comprehensive list to van build materials and components!

Setting Your DIY Van Build Up For Success

Now that all the mental work is out of the way, it is time to begin. The best place to begin your DIY camper van conversion is at our Step by Step Guide to Converting a Camper Van. And, if you need further support, we offer DIY Van Build Consulting that you can schedule online. Happy building!